Onice
Omnia Profumi

Genre: Fougère

Onice opens on a beguilingly weird accord of celery, cumin, and anise that gradually gives way to a nostalgic 1970s-style aromatic fougère (think Azzaro pour Homme) gussied up with a bevy of incongruous tropical fruit notes. The transition is a mite cacophonous, but both phases are consistent in their air of deliberate eccentricity. The dissonant heart pits a barber shop arrangement of lavender, geranium, nutmeg and musk against lactonic fruit, bright florals, and ylang-ylang in such high relief that Onice can smell like a layering of two unrelated fragrances. I'm not convinced the pieces cohere well enough to succeed completely as a composition, but I certainly enjoy the reckless play between traditional genres.

The fruity floral elements manage to outlast the spicy, aromatic content, and Onice winds up exiting on a mild woody oriental drydown centered on sweet, powdery amber and creamy sandalwood. It's a surprisingly quiet and conventional destination, given what precedes it. Some might call it anticlimactic, but after the eventful journey my nose appreciates the comfortable landing. Even so, it's Onice's off-kilter top notes that appeal to me most, and after each wearing I regret that they don't persist for longer.

I received Onice as a freebie sample from LuckyScent. As everyone has mentioned, Onice starts out very green. But it isn't long -about 10 minutes- before that heady green receded and moved into... butterscotch! What? This I did not expect. When my wife smelled my wrist, her eyes lit up and she said, "Ooh, butterscotch!" She loves butterscotch. Me, I'm not a fan. Perhaps this butterscotch accord is created by some of the fruit notes combining with a vanilla rich amber? Anyway, after about 15 minutes anise and licorice took over as the dominant notes although the vanilla/amber (still slightly butterscotch) remained. At this point I would also get an occasional whiff of mint, pineapple and what seemed to be a blend of the darker florals, jasmine and rose. When the licorice really blossomed it was definitely a savory black licorice. No Twizzlers here. Eventually everything settled into a more blended and lighter overall fragrance with just a touch of woody cedar entering the picture. I say "lighter" but it was stlll rich. All this happened over the course of about an hour or so.

Onice has a lot going on and creates an interesting journey. Unfortunately, it doesn't really suit my personality so a thumbs down for me, personally. However, trying to be more objective and realizing that others may love Onice's complexity and richness, I gave it a neutral rating.

Oh, one last thing: the juice itself seemed quite oily on my skin and it never really lost its sheen so you may want to beware spraying on clothing.

Ok, at the opening, all I could smell was black licorice and celery. Eww, not exactly a pleasant combination of notes. But give it 25 minutes and the fragrance turns into something quite nice. It's a bit spicy and masculine and I can smell the cedarwood and a tinge of musk. It certainly ended better than it started.

Like Granato, this scent has a strange opening. Celery and salad greens, no lie. Then it gets interesting. The notes are hard to pinpoint but what I perceived was nutmeg, a little coffee, white florals, green apple, mint. Some sort of wood shows up in there too but I can't tell which one. It's ethereal and airy. Out of the Omnia brand I like Onice the most, even if I can't identify all that's in it. Sooner or later I'll figure it out.